Eric P. Hamp, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Eric P. Hamp

Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago

Date of Birth: 16-Nov-1920

Place of Birth: London

Date of Death: 17-Feb-2019

Profession: linguist

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio

Eric Pratt Hamp (November 16, 1920 – February 17, 2019) was an American linguist widely respected as a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics, with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian.
Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, who work entirely on the basis of written materials, he conducted extensive fieldwork on lesser-known Indo-European languages and dialects, such as Albanian, Arbëresh and Arvanitika; Breton; Welsh; Irish; Resian and Scots Gaelic. His wide-ranging interests also included American Indian languages.
He served for many years as editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics and did field work on Quileute and Ojibwa.
He also studied linguistic aspects of braille.Hamp's scholarship is characterized by the densely argued, narrowly focused note, essay and review, generally consisting of a few pages.
He has written more than 3,500 articles and reviews, and nearly every important aspect of historical linguistics has been dealt with, often multiple times, in Hamp's writings. He was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and in spite of his advanced age, he continued to write, edit, speak and travel at select meetings and conferences, and was an Associate Editor of the journal Anthropological Linguistics.
He died in February 2019 at the age of 98.